HEALTH - The African Mirror

May

13

2021

Should my teen get the COVID-19 vaccine?

COVID-19

MICHAEL ERMAN THE U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine for use in children as young as 12, widening the country's inoculation program as vaccination rates have slowed significantly. The following information should help parents deciding whether to inoculate their adolescent children. IS THE VACCINE SAFE FOR 12-15 YEAR OLDS? The FDA found the vaccine to be safe and effective in Pfizer's clinical trial. That trial included 2,260 participants in that age group, half of whom received the same vaccine dose given to adults. The other half got a placebo as a comparison group. The…

Jun

09

2021

By The African Mirror

How The Gambia beat trachoma, an infection that causes blindness

HEALTH

THE government of The Gambia recently announced that the country had eliminated trachoma, a highly contagious eye disease, after years of hard work by health workers, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and communities. MUSA MUTALI, Lecturer of Optometry, University of Benin In The Gambia, the disease accounted for 17% of the reported blindness in a national survey in 1986. The prevalence of trachoma has dropped from 0.1% to 0.02% in the last 10 years. Current estimates show a prevalence of less than 0.2% in adults aged over 15 years. This is about one case per 1,000 people. Trachoma has been described as…

May

13

2021

By The African Mirror

How can we stop the next pandemic? Here’s what a WHO panel recommends

HEALTH

STEPHANIE NEBEHAY A new global system should be set up to respond faster to disease outbreaks, which could ensure that no future virus causes a pandemic as devastating as COVID-19, an independent World Health Organization review panel said yesterday. The experts found crucial flaws in the global response in early 2020 - including a delay in declaring an emergency, a failure to impose travel restrictions and an entire "lost month" when countries neglected to respond to warnings - that let the virus quickly spread into a catastrophic pandemic. To address those problems, the WHO should be given the power to…

May

12

2021

By The African Mirror

WHO reviewing Seychelles COVID-19 data after fully vaccinated people test positive

COVID-19

THE World Health Organization has announced that it was reviewing coronavirus data from Seychelles after the health ministry said more than a third of people who tested positive for COVID-19 in the past week had been fully vaccinated. Both the ministry and the WHO stressed that the majority of those who tested positive had not been vaccinated or had only received one dose, that no one who had died had been fully vaccinated and that nearly all of those needing treatment for severe or critical cases were unvaccinated. But the WHO said it was closely following the situation in the…

Jun

08

2021

By The African Mirror

Egypt to produce Sinovac vaccine

COVID-19

EGYPT has received 500,000 doses of China's Sinovac coronavirus vaccine airport sources said, as the health ministry said local production of the Chinese vaccine will start in mid-June. Egypt received raw materials for the production of two million Sinovac doses in May, after signing an agreement to produce the vaccine locally and distribute it in Egypt and other African countries. The first vials are due to be produced on June 15 and up to six weeks will be needed for checks before they are put to use in vaccination centres, Health Minister Hala Zayed told the private MBC Masr TV…

Jun

08

2021

By The African Mirror

WHO optimistic about African vaccine sites

COVID-19

WORLD Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus hopes African COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing sites will be identified and some even close to producing by the end of 2021, in the race to deliver more shots to the continent. While Tedros did not provide specifics on which country, Reuters has reported that Senegal could begin producing COVID-19 vaccines next year under an agreement with Belgian biotech group Univercells aimed at boosting Africa's drug-manufacturing ambitions. Tedros also called on companies including Pfizer and Moderna whose vaccines rely on so-called mRNA technology to share their knowledge with the WHO's COVID-19 Technology Access Pool, which…

Jun

08

2021

By The African Mirror

Funding, vaccines sought from G20 nations

COVID-19

STEPHANIE NEBEHAY EMERGING powers among G20 countries including China, Brazil and India are being pressed to contribute urgent financing and COVID-19 vaccines for the COVAX dose-sharing facility, the World Health Organization and a Norwegian official have said. Ahead of the G7 summit this week, wealthy countries have also been pushed to follow the United States in making doses available immediately to cover a 200 million dose gap caused by Indian supply disruptions and manufacturing delays. So far some 150 million doses have been pledged to COVAX, far short of the 250 million needed by the end of September, and 1…

Jun

05

2021

By The African Mirror

COVAX hopes to deliver delayed AstraZeneca shots to Africa in June, July

COVID-19

EMMA FARGE THE COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme hopes to send millions of delayed doses of AstraZeneca's shots to Africa in June and July, but the deployment hinges on a Spanish manufacturing site securing regulatory approval, according to U.N. officials. Africa has been hit by a halt in vaccine exports from India which were due to make up a significant portion of the first phase of the COVAX roll-out. As a result, many recipients including health workers will not receive their second dose of the AstraZeneca shot within the recommended 12-week interval. "The second dose gap is a huge issue," World Health…

Jun

08

2021

By The African Mirror

U.S. FDA approves Biogen Alzheimer’s drug, hailed as ‘a big day’

HEALTH

DEENA BEASLEY and JULIE STEENHUYSEN U.S. regulators on Monday approved Biogen Inc's aducanumab as the first treatment to attack a likely cause of Alzheimer's disease despite controversy over whether the clinical evidence proves the drug works. Aducanumab aims to remove sticky deposits of a protein called amyloid-beta from the brains of patients in earlier stages of Alzheimer's in order to stave off its ravages, which include memory loss and the inability to care for one's self. "This is good news for patients with Alzheimer's disease. We've not had a disease-modifying therapy approved ever," said Dr Ronald Petersen, an Alzheimer's disease…

Jun

07

2021

By The African Mirror

Boost for Africa: Senegal to make COVID vaccines

COVID-19

EDWARD McALLISTER SENEGAL could begin producing COVID-19 vaccines next year under an agreement with Belgian biotech group Univercells aimed at boosting Africa's drug-manufacturing ambitions, a source involved in funding the project told Reuters. As wealthy countries begin to reopen after securing vaccine supplies early, African nations are still struggling to acquire shots. On a continent of 1.3 billion, only about 7 million have been fully vaccinated. The collaboration highlights the opportunities created by a global push to channel money and technology towards production on a continent that makes only 1% of the vaccines it requires. Univercells announced the signing of…